THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 1935 ITALY'S OBLIGATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22206, 5 September 1935, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 1935 ITALY'S OBLIGATIONS

lir the course of' the East African dispute Italy has said so much about hor rights that thought of her obligations has been iti danger of being smothered. This ii« all the more remarkable because) Signor Mussolini is asking that Italy be allowed to undertake more obligations there, in a "civilising"- mission imposed upon Abyssinia as an Italian protectorate. True, he has sometimes used words suggesting that all Europe and the* whole body of nations in the League should be regarded as charged with this mission. "The true question with reference to Abyssinia," he told the political director of the Echo de Paris, "is whether Europe is still worthy to carry out in the world the mission of colonisation whicfci for several centuries ha's made it great. If Europe be not worthy, the hour of its decadence has struck. Is it to place this fact; on record that the League has been formed ! Is the League to be the tribunal before which the negroes, backward peoples and sa.vages of the world can arraign the great nations that have revolutionised and transformed humanity? Is it to be the Parliament in which Europe will succumb beneath the law of numbers and see its decadence proclaimed ? The moment of decision has come." But ciobody capable of understanding the situation can be deceived by this broad inclusion of Europe and the League in the authority he wisheu to see exercised ; time and again he> has argued with stark assertiveness that Italy's national needs ancl purposes are the driving motive of Ibis desire ; bo much so that if Italy be not granted the right to exercise the coveted mission in. a way of her own choosing she will defy the rest of Europe and leave the League. This attitude unintentionally compels thought of the obligations that always go with rights. How hats Italy behaved toward her obligations? Does she manifest a readiness to be bound by them? Is she now prepared to honour them? Upon the answers to these questions should depend the decision that the League Council iB now met to make.

It is first to be noted that Italy is Hnder covenanted obligations to Abyssinia. These date from the advent of Italy to East Africa by territorial rights ceded in the eastern portion of Somaliland fronting the Indian Ocean a,nd in Eritrea on the coast of the Red Sea. They were afterwards made definite in a Treaty of Friendship sigaed by Italy and Abyssinia in 1928,. This treaty provided for settlement of all disputes by, first, direct negotiations, and, second, by processes of conciliation and arbitration. The fifth article of the treaty is explicit. It provides that both Governments undertake to submit to a procedure of conciliation and arbitration disputes which may arise between them and which it may not have been possible to settle by ordinary diplomatic methods, without having recounie to armed force; "Notes shall be exchanged by common agreement between the two Governments regarding the manner o;E appointing arbitrators." When in November last the clash at Walwal occurred, Italy at once took sanguinary vengeance; even supposing Abyssinian tribesmen to be guilty oJf provoking the clash —a view not easy to take—the nation self-adver-tised asi vastly superior in codes of conduct did not 'wait a moment for the prescribed negotiations but inflated siummary punishment out of all proportion to the offence. Further, Italy proceeded to demand reparation, declining to submit the diispute to arbitration until long afterwards, when Abyssinia solemnly undertook "to accept any arbitral award immediately and unreservedly," whereau Italy obstructed the process and meanwhile proceeded to tErow troops and armaments on a large scale into East Africa, with the declared object of avenging Adowa and subduing Abyssinia—in direct contravention of the treaty of 1928. Italy's action is notoriously at variance with her attitude not long before, when much mutual raiding took place on the frontier between British and Italian Somaliland. A commission was then appointed by agreement, and certain financial compensations, paid by both sides, achieved a complete settlement. Would. Abyssinia have besen lesrc tractable' than Britain—or did Italy hail the Walwal incident as a welcome excuse for gigantic military measures ? But there are !wider obligations than those contracted to Abyssinia alone. If the tripartite treaty of 1906, which bound. Britain, France and Italy to respect the limits of their several spheres of influence, be negligible because of merely indirect application, there cannot be set aside Italy's obligations as a member of the League. These expressly preclude immediate resort to war in the event of a dispute, and the pledge to accept either arbitration or a decision by the League Council is emphasised by an agreement "in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the report by the Council." If it be said that Italy has not yet actually resorted to war, a convincing reply is at hand: the rainy {season pf Abyssinia has deferred in-

land operations, the massing of men and material on the coast has proceeded apace, Signor Mussolini's inflammatory speeches have roused Italy to a dangerous extent, and even "a threat of war" is declaredly "a matter of concern to the whole League." Italy's undisguised eagerness to get on with the subdual of Abyssinia and professed intention to do so no matter what the League may say are a flagrant breach of the spirit and letter of the Covenant. Looking wider still, beyond the circle of the League, there is met the obligation of Italy as a signatory of the Briand-Kellogg Pact, binding her to abandon war as an instrument of national policy in the settling of disputes. All these obligations, to which Italy is unequivocally pledged, are seemingly held by Signor Mussolini in more or less contempt. He announces his determination to let none of them stand in the way of his purpose. And yet, strange to note, the gravamen of his accusation against Abyssinia is an utter unfitness for League membership.